Car Option Subscriptions Won't Go Away But Will Be The Norm

People are, frankly, fine with subscriptions for things like remote start. It's viewed as an additional convenience, one that people will pay for.

So, people pay their $8 a month for remote start and forget about it. Or heated seats. It becomes another microtransaction on your credit card statement. Soon, those packages will grow because these automakers are seeing a return on their shift in business policy. All you have to do to see what we're talking about is extrapolate this business model to the entertainment industry. Suddenly, BMW, Toyota, or others look a lot like Hulu, offering tiered subscriptions to their cars, their brands, and their "lifestyles."

钱进来,品牌可以续rol the asset, be it something as small as heated seats or as large as the whole car. It's like renting an apartment on a smaller scale. Problem is, the code is already in the car for heated seats. So is the button. You justcan't press it because you don't own it.

To be clear, there is an asterisk. Let's use BMW again, just because we've been mean to it for a few hundred words. BMW's Wi-Fi hotspot needs data to run. It takes up additional space out in the digital ether. BMW has to pay for and maintain the data sent by that LTE connection or similar. BMW is a business, and it sure won't do that for free. So, you've got to pay. And that's fair.

The issue is that with the heated seats or subscribe-a-car path, you don't own an asset at the end of that. The automakers do. Your car is an asset, arguably the biggest one you have aside from your home and your health. America is an inherently car-dependent country, for better or worse. And brands asking you to subscribe to parts of your car is taking value out of an assetthat you are paying for,in a country that practically mandates the use of a car.

It's tough to tell what can be done about this, supposing you take issue with anything that's been said here. Of course, simply not paying is an option. But most people won't hold out. Parts of America are utterly frigid in the winter. Someone might need Toyota's remote start or BMW's heated seats just to have a car at a bearable temperature when they leave for work.

Regardless, this model will continue to grow, simply because the majority of consumers have shown they're OK with it, from the entertainment industry to the auto industry. Until consumers show that they are not ok with assets being taken out of their vehicles in exchange for these small fees, the trend will continue. Because it's all about creating value for the shareholders.